Upside Down!

Yeah my life is basically flipped upside down literally because you know I'm current living on the opposite side of the world but also because of all the changes that have happened to me.

Here's just a list of a few

Physical: I look crazy different

Adult: Everyone treats me like an adult 

Food: starting to get used to the food

Physical

Yeah so I have a story to illustrate just how different I look. So we don't have any big mirrors in our apartment like we just have tiny mirrors that are just hand held. Anywho the other day we were going to the city for zone conference so I actually got to be in an actual restaurant so it actually had a bathroom.  Anyways I walked in and look at this big mirror and see my full reflection for the first time in a few months and it was legits like "Wow what's that blonde white guy doing here!? Oh flip man that's me!!" It was mind boggling I seriously just stared at myself for a solid 5 minutes just marveling at how different I looked. 

So yeah my hair is way lighter because of all the time I spend under that sweet Filipino sun. Also all that rice and random mystery meat has made me gain 20 lbs now so yeah I've gotten a lot bigger like at one point me and a few other elders (all Filipino) check our waists and I was bigger than the second biggest by 2 inches! It was nuts! Also I've gained about another inch.

Adult 

Again to illustrate this I got a story. 

So we went on splits yesterday and so I'm just hitting the streets (more like the jungle paths) with a 19 year old kid in the branch who's getting ready to go on a mission and two other youth from the branch. 

So as we are doing this I first contact this dude and some random other guy basically is like "You are mormons?!?" "Yes sir we are." Then he just starts asking me about something that he heard about from the 1980s about a Mormon bishop poisoning his ward. And a bunch of other random crap that I didn't really know about because you know I'm an 18 year old moron.

Anyways he's ranting and reciting a bunch of random scriptures and I realized it was 100% the responsibility of me the 18 year old moron to defend my faith in a way that wasn't arguing and also comforting to the kids who are with me. They were clearly bothered by a lot by the things this guy said. Oh yeah and I gotta do this in straight Tagalog. It grew my testimony a ton because I basically said a silent prayer like "Man help me out. I'm too stupid to do this without you!" (That's gonna be the title of the book I'm going to write about my mission) 

Anyways I said words that were not my own and somehow everyone in that exchange left friendly and smiling. It really built my testimony.

Food

Again story, so there are these BBQ stands all over the place and the BBQ chicken feet (I won't ever eat that trash. I can imagine exactly how chicken feet tastes) and intestines and... blood cubes. 

Yeah so I tried the intestines a while ago and decided that those BBQ places were not my thing. 

Anywho the other day this guy from the ward bought me the blood cubes and I couldn't say no because he was trying to be so nice and he had spent his personal money to feed the tall hungry Joe (slang for American in the Philippines from when there were soldiers stationed in the Philippines- GI Joe) so I ate it and I was shocked to learn  that it was one of the tastiest things I've had in a while (not exactly a hard contest I mean I eat at McDonald's when I'm in Tanay the closest city to my lil Malaya and when I feel like treating myself) 

But no joke I way have learned a lot of Filipino cuisine is pretty tasty. Not a fan of the crazier things and rice every meal every day still is slowly causing me to lose my mind but don't let anyone tell you the blood cubes and balut (fertilized duck egg) are gross, cuz they are straight money. 

Also don't be mistaken I still miss American food! You best believe when I get home and I'm in the airport Imma make a quick stop at the Cafe Rio and get me that cheesy sweet pork burrito before I go down that escalator because as much as I have missed you chumps I've missed my sweet Cafe Rio a lot more.

Love you all! Have a good week don't forget you are children of God and that he is mindful of you and loves you!